GGACR/Kliff Undersn/Strategy

General Tactics

Notable Moves

Normals: f.S, 5D, 6H, 2D, j.K, Airthrow
Specials: P Bellowing Roar, Limb Severer, Two Steps Forward, Taunt,
Force Breaks: FB Bellowing Roar
Overdrives: Reflex Roar

Kliff's overall gameplan is to play the opponent's weaknesses until you score a knockdown and apply a mix up. Against rushdown characters, you'll generally want to push them out and harass them with long range pokes. However, against zoners and other characters who can seriously punish Kliff from a distance, you'll want to stay near them and apply pressure and heavily mix them up.

Your usual ground pokes are 5P and c.S when nearby, f.S, 2D, and 2H when they're farther away, and Airthrow, 623H, 6P, j.P, 5H, and c.S as anti air, depending on the matchup and positioning. You can convert all of these into short combos and knockdown from almost anywhere on screen, allowing Kliff to run his gamut. If you need a safejump, combos ending in j.41236S are your best bet.

On defense, your best bets are backdash, defensive airthrow, and occasionally dodge (chop) or Soul Survivor. Kliff's normals are too slow to poke out of strings reliably, and his fastest ones are usually lacking in range, with 5P being overall the best. c.S is also frame 5, but you run the risk of activating f.S instead, which will get you punished if used improperly.

In order to avoid dealing with strong offense, you can stay very high in the air, but Kliff can have tremendous trouble returning to the ground due to how floaty he is. Proceed with caution

It can be difficult to recognize when you have the potential to open a combo containing a [6H]. This is the prime damage tool for Kliff's huge and potential TOD combos, but setups into it outside of dizzies are character specific and reliant on being in the corner.

However, if you have 100 meter and score a throw/airthrow in the corner, Kliff can guaranteed kill over 3/4s of the cast from full health as long as they don't have a burst. This the opportunity that you'll always want to be looking for, as Kliff can turn the tides in his favor off of one punish, making him devastatingly volatile. Just ensure that your stun isn't too high, as if you attempt Two Steps Forward with too much dizzy, Kliff will throw out his back and not only will your combo drop, the opponent will be able to punish you after they recover from the previous move.

Summary:

Play around the opponents' strengths. Apply wacky mixups when you get the initiative
Use your high jump, low profile, and defensive tools intelligently, otherwise mainly commit to blocking
Besides 623H, all of Kliff's Anti Air options are situational
When you get a hit or chance to dizzy, take it but consider the risks of each followup

Blockstrings

Kliff's blockstring length is fairly limited. It will usually start with a 5P or 2K to (c.S) > f.S. Once he gets pushed out of f.S and 2H range, he can't truly keep the opponent grounded unless he uses tk.FB Bellowing Roar or Reflex Roar, both of which cost meter and do not necessarily extend his pressure any further.

If you've conditioned them to stay grounded, P Bellowing Roar can be FRC'd to allow Kliff to get back in off of an airdash. If you start a blockstring out of the air, j.K will work as a fast air-to-ground, and can be gatling'd reliably to j.P and j.S. Avoid using j.H and j.D in blockstrings unless you have the meter to make them safe. j.H can be interrupted before it goes active due to its speed, and j.D is not a safe normal, even when normally RC'D (it must be overriden with a different special to remove its landing recovery even with RC'd).

Summary:

Start with 5/2P, keep it short, look mainly for instances for frame traps or punishing jump out attempts

Okizeme

One of Kliff's more common combo enders is his Taunt, which lends itself perfectly to Oki. Kliff's taunt produces four Kana (letters), which bounce along the ground and have a decent amount of hit and blockstun. They don't go away if Kliff gets hit once they go active, so they serve as a useful tool for enforcing the opponent to stay put while you run your blender.

If you have meter, you can also block with a spaced meaty 236P (FRC), and then mix between IAD j.K, instant overhead j.K, 2K, etc. You can also bait throws with tk.41236S, and bait reversals with well spaced oki, meaty 5/2P, or dodge, or occasionally dash in throw. Be careful as Kliff's dash cannot be FDC'd for several frames after startup, so if you press a button mid-dash too early, expect to get a normal and potentially be counter hit.

Kliff's j.K on oki leads to either low j.S, whiff j.P > land low/throw, or F-shiki dj.K. You can also do another j.K once the j.P whiffs. This is one of Kliff's strongest mixup opportunities and while it doesn't lead to much damage without resources, it can be incredibly frustrating for opponents to deal with.

Summary

Enforce blocking with 236P (FRC) or Taunt
Go for an airdash mixup starting with j.K
Use small gaps after j.K to enforce the mixup of another overhead, land low, or grab
Whiff a j.P after a j.K during an airdash to establish this mixup

j.H Instant OverheadA potent overhead that works on 21/25 characters.

Medium

While rising j.K may seem like Kliff's primary rising overhead, j.H actually works in many instances and grants strong conversions no matter what Kliff's meter is when used!

To have this move hit as an instant overhead while rising, simply dash towards the opponent, jump, and press j.H while ascending as quickly as possible. Note the spacing, you must be close enough to your opponent. If done correctly, this will hit a number of characters while they're crouching, such as Testament, Ky, and Slayer. But what makes it nearly universal? Put simply, proximity guard! If the character isn't hit crouching, but are currently in blockstun or attempting to block crouching, they will get hit by j.H on the way up anyways! The only 4 characters this does not work on are Kliff himself, Faust, Zappa, and Chipp.

After the j.H connects, you can input j.41236SGuardHigh/Air, AllStartup14Recovery26Advantage-6 to convert, and loop the situation all over again assuming you route the combo correctly or are in the corner. This technique greatly enhances Kliff's okizeme and pressure sequences, and makes every knockdown he gets much scarier, so it's worth utilizing!

Common areas to apply this technique are after a meaty and/or FRC'd 236PGuardAllStartup16Recovery4Advantage+3, on okizeme outright, or during Taunt oki. Be mindful of your opponent's blocking habits, and use this to enforce a lot of fear!

Tips and Tricks

Mobility

Kliff's ground dash is very slow, his airdash isn't great outside of pressure, and his fall speed is so abysmal that getting in on opponents when necessary can be very difficult. Thankfully, Kliff has a few tools to overcome this.

Wavedashing

Similarly to Johnny, Kliff can "wavedash" by Faultless Defense Cancelling his dash, although it is much slower and the timing requires more of a delay if you are tapping FD for it. This can offset some of his mobility issues, and you can do this wavedash more easily by having two buttons held before the dash comes out. Then, all you have to do is alternate between back and forth on the directionals (66 4 6 4 6 4 etc).

This dash also low profiles, allowing you to go under certain moves as you make your way in. This makes Kliff's dash a risky but occasionally useful means of getting in.

Nape Saddle

Kliff's 214K is a very far reaching overhead which shifts Kliff forward extremely quickly, often crossing up. This is move is often used after an OTG 2S, or in a 6[H] combo in order to score a close knockdown.

While the move itself is fairly unsafe, it comes with an FRC, which can be used to place Kliff airborne at a better position, and can be immediately airdashed out of for crossups, advancing, or just getting around them.

Limb Severer FRC

j.41236S is a plummet move which counts as an overhead on the first hit, and pushes them out farther the higher up Kliff is when starting the move. This can be an ambiguous crossup out of an airdash or a Vault FRC (214K). If done close enough, it also leads to conversions and into dizzy combos near the corner.

The airdash in particularly is quite gimmicky, as, Kliff usually drops straight down after an FRC. If you condition them enough by using the FRC into land > throw/2K, you can start to mix in the airdash, or even not FRC'ing at all.

2D

Kliff's 2D will move his sprite in a circular motion forward, but his character's *position* is technically still in the same spot. This means that the way the opponent must block and where Kliff actually stands is separate from his hitbox and where his body appears, meaning that you can see some jank instances where Kliff appears to cross through the opponent. This can lead to awkward situations and might confuse the opponent long enough to allow for a grab or another mixup.

FB Chop

With meter, Kliff's annoying mixups can lead to fatal damage in the corner by combo'ing into FB Hellish Charge and getting a stun, one of Kliff's prime directives. Landing a dizzy and starting a combo with {6P} > 236S or {6H} leads to large chunks and already starts with around 100 points of damage are the start of the combo.

This is especially insulting when done out of a burst grab.

Post Dizzy 6[H] setups

(corner) 5K > 6{P} > 236S FRC > 6[H]: Works on Millia, Eddie, Faust, Pot, Anji, Jam, Venom, Zappa, Kliff, and Justice. This leads to much easier confirms than the below, but scales your damage a bit.

(corner) 6{P} > 236S FRC > 6[H]: This works on everybody except Pot, Robo Ky, and ABA. This leads to higher damage, but is extremely tight against midweights. In order for it to work against them, you must FRC 236S on the first frame with P+K+S, and then immediately release the FRC buttons and piano in 6[H] in order to not activate IK mode. This is substantially harder and will leave Kliff vulnerable if the 6[H] whiffs. However, if you can land it, it leads to similar (sub) TOD setups as against lightweights.

Summary:

Wavedashing can help mitigate the poor recovery on Kliff's dash
The dash itself can also be used as a low profile advance
Kliff's purely vertical dive is a strong mixup tool, particularly close to the ground, and can be FRC'd before it goes active
If you have the meter and aren't at risk of throwing out your back, ToD them in the corner.

Fighting Kliff

At Neutral

Kliff is going to want to play against you based on your character. If you're close range, he wants out. If you're mid range, he'l play tug of war. If you're far range, he wants in. Play your game effectively and it can be difficult for Kliff to deal, but he generally has some useful tools at all ranges. If he's outside your optimal range, be patient dealing with his long range normals (f.S, 2H, j.S, j.H), or his close range oddities (j.p, 5P, 5K, c.S, airthrow).

Nearly all of Kliff's extended options are unsafe, but can be difficult to punish. His larger normals, while oppressive, all extend their hurtboxes largely and early, so you can hit him preemptively with a projectile, a disjointed normal, or something with invul and get a counter hit. Kliff takes damage easily and is tied for the game's lowest stun resistance, so it's best to make it hurt early.

Kliff's mobility is one of his major faults. Being floaty can also make it difficult for Kliff to return to the ground, so aithrowing him might be your best bet in many instances if your character can reach high enough in time.

If Kliff ever makes a gamble at neutral like 214K (Vault), Drill (214S), or dive (j.D or j.41236S), you can block and punish, but be cautious of ambiguity.

Summary:

Play your character's strengths, be careful when he's outside your preferred ranges
Preemptive moves will beat a lot of Kliff's larger normals on prediction
Kliff's bad mobility can work very much in your favor and make his approaches/avoidances predictable
All of Kliff's scarier options come with big risks

On Offense

Kliff is very light and very small. Your combos and strings may whiff if he crouches, pushes you out, or goes for a low profile option. His throw has higher range than average, but he doesn't have a particularly strong normal to OS with grab outside of maybe 5K or c.S, both of which can be whiff punished if baited and avoided.

Safejumps are your friend here. Kliff's reversal options are all fairly poor in their own ways. Even his reversal super (Soul Survivor) is randomized, and might push you out while the move is still going. If he decides to be cheeky and charge it, don't attempt a grab as it is completely throw invincible during this window.

If Kliff ever goes for dodge, you can simply throw him out of it, even if he does the followup as neither have any throw invincibility. This has the added benefit of discouraging the Kliff player of using it further lest they throw out his back. Foolish Kliff players will try to abuse this move, and if their back goes out feel free to go for your biggest punish, keeping their burst in mind.

He doesn't have a strong ability to jump out either, and Kliff's Dead Angle is not invincible until frame 5. This means that multi hit projectiles and gatlings with short startup lock Kliff in place and force him to play defense intelligently.

Summary:

Kliff is small and might make your normal offensive tools whiff if done without care
Safejump him during oki and all of his defensive tools will fail
If he does dodge or its follow up, throw it
Has no tools to escape gapless pressure

On Defense

Faultless Defense keeps Kliff out and doesn't allow him to get away with reckless airdash pressure. Do this against his longer ranged normals if you want to keep him out, but IB them if you want to keep him in and punish him.

j.S to j.H is a very common air blockstring, but there is a gap between them. Fuzzy mashing will get hit here, but you can reversal between them and get a counter hit here. IB'ing the j.S might give you enough time to airthrow him if he's low enough to the ground.

His j.D (the angled dive) is slightly minus on block but has extended landing recovery even if RC'd. You can throw him or tag him with a quick normal.

His vertical dive, Limb Severer (the straight down one), is also unsafe on block, but can push you out too far for a punish. You can block the first hit high and then punish before the second one comes out (best done with jump IB), or hit him with a reversal or AA before he plummets if he does it recklessly high.

Speaking of punishing, Kliff's drill (214S) is unsafe on block, but can be difficult to punish based on spacing and appearance. You recover from blockstun before he hits the ground, and he is in counter hit state for the entire duration, so you can make him eat it hard if you get him close enough to land a strong hit.

P Bellowing Roar is a strong projectile but has a long enough startup that you can jump out of Kliff's pressure before it goes active if he does it in a string. Watch out for his grabs, as both his normal and air throws have higher range than average. They can lead to full conversions and potentially death even early on in rounds if he has meter.

Be very careful about bursting in the corner. Eagle eyed players can get a full conversion in the corner. If they have full meter, you're basically dead, no matter how much health you have.

Summary:

Stay in your optimal range, as Kliff is generally outclassed in specific areas in each matchup
FD him out during airdash pressure unless you expect a grab
Don't get hit in the corner and don't get burst grabbed, you'll probably die
I mean it. Don't burst like an idiot